E.H. Norman
John W. Dower, "E.H. Norman, Japan and the Uses of History," in Origins of the Modern Japanese State: Selected Writings of E.H. Norman, John W. Dower, ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1975)
It is worthwhile to dwell briefly on Norman's view of history, partly because that view was subtle, whereas recent characterizations of his discipline by American scholars have often been rigid and crude; partly also because he addressed the meaning of history most directly in several essays which have been inaccessible to Westerners. But a more compelling reason for doing this is that Norman paused in the midst of his career to step back and ask why history is important, and how the historian can best convey it with greatest relevance and least abuse; and although these seem natural questions for historians to dwell upon, the task is more often postponed. For Norman, history had both general and personal value. On the most simple and intimate level, he spoke (in "History: Its Uses and Pleasure") of "the magical pleasure that the reading of history can give" - the realization that there is no last word on any given subject; the recognition that when written by the greats, history has the pathos of a Greek tragedy; the dimensions of irony, mystery and poetry; and this: "that peculiar pleasure of reading in the calm of one's study of turbulent events, of great triumphs and failures or simply of the everyday life of people in bygone ages. To cast one's mind into the past and to have described vividly for one the passions and ambitions, the hopes and disappointments not only of great men, but of people like ourselves, is to feel an intimation of man's immortal spirit." (5)
It is worthwhile to dwell briefly on Norman's view of history, partly because that view was subtle, whereas recent characterizations of his discipline by American scholars have often been rigid and crude; partly also because he addressed the meaning of history most directly in several essays which have been inaccessible to Westerners. But a more compelling reason for doing this is that Norman paused in the midst of his career to step back and ask why history is important, and how the historian can best convey it with greatest relevance and least abuse; and although these seem natural questions for historians to dwell upon, the task is more often postponed. For Norman, history had both general and personal value. On the most simple and intimate level, he spoke (in "History: Its Uses and Pleasure") of "the magical pleasure that the reading of history can give" - the realization that there is no last word on any given subject; the recognition that when written by the greats, history has the pathos of a Greek tragedy; the dimensions of irony, mystery and poetry; and this: "that peculiar pleasure of reading in the calm of one's study of turbulent events, of great triumphs and failures or simply of the everyday life of people in bygone ages. To cast one's mind into the past and to have described vividly for one the passions and ambitions, the hopes and disappointments not only of great men, but of people like ourselves, is to feel an intimation of man's immortal spirit." (5)